TC 225 
.N7 n3 
1911a 
Copy 1 

No. 11 

DEPARTMENT OF DOCKS AND FERRIES 

FT MEADE Pier “A”, North River 

GenColl YORK CITY 



REPORT 

ACCOMPANYING 

^ ; GENERAL DESCRIPTION 

i' " OF 

'i 

^ THE HARBOR OF NEW YORK 

By S. WILLETT HOAG, Jr., Deputy Chief Engineer 

I ' _ 

SUBMITTED BY 

j CALVIN TOMKINS 

I 

Commissioner of Docks 


j > 

) 4 d 

>o ^ 

SEPTEMBER, 1911 














INTRODUCTION. 


By CALVIN TOMKINS, Commissioner, 
Department of Docks and Ferries. 


Hon. William J. Gaynor, 

Mayor: 

Sir —The physical features of New York Harbor are so 
grand that they constitute a present embarrassment of oppor¬ 
tunities. The port, for many years to come, cannot hope to 
plan its artificial development in such a manner as to take full 
advantage of the situation which nature has provided. In fact, 
this amplitude of natural harbor facilities has been the principal 
reason why New York, more than any other great seaport, has 
neglected (up to the present time) to provide an adequate plan 
of organization. So much room exists about the shores of the 
harbor for commercial and industrial development, that the need 
for economic planning has not begun to be felt until now; and, 
even at present, congestion as distinguished from inefficiency 
has only been manifested in one district, namely, along the west 
side of Manhattan, where the waterfront is most intensively used 
by steamships, railroads, and the requirements of local commerce. 

The port is divided by the harbor waters into four divisions, 
namely: Long Island, Staten Island, Manhattan and The Bronx, 
and New Jersey. 

The port problem presented is: To design each part for its 
best commercial or industrial use, and to connect all into an 
organic whole—first, through the instrumentality of car floats, 
ferries and lighters, and, subsequently, to bring the parts into 
more intimate correlation by railroad tunnels under the harbor 
waters. 

Longer piers must be provided for ocean steamships of the 
first class at Manhattan, or this class of shipping must be moved 
to other docks about the harbor. The individualistic character 
of the present railroad terminals must give way to a system 
of terminals connected by marginal railroads, so that all terminals 
may be made accessible to all railroads. 







2 

It has sometimes been stated that the transfer of goods by 
lighters and car floats about the harbor is more convenient and 
flexible than any arrangement of railway switching at other 
ports. It is true that great flexibility results from this water 
delivery, but this flexibility is of little use if it must stop at the 
pier instead of being continued to the manufacturer’s warehouse 
and by convenient terminals to every consignee or shipper. All 
terminals should be accessible to all railroads. It is possible 
to materially decrease expenses by supplementing the present 
• method by lines of marginal railroads which shall connect the 
terminals, and, ultimately, it will doubtless be found econom¬ 
ically advantageous to tie together these connected terminals by 
tunnels in place of car floats, as above suggested. 

The City has acquired most of the waterfront where docks 
are intensively used at Manhattan and elsewhere, and it is 
becoming apparent that a policy involving the progressive munici¬ 
palization of the entire waterfront will be forced upon the com¬ 
munity, since private waterfront improvements cannot be 
-expected to compete successfully with municipal improvements. 
Already at South Brooklyn the necessity for this policy has 
become manifest. The reasons for this are noted in the Depart¬ 
ment’s Report on South Brooklyn Development. 

The City should seek, through gradual extension of municipal 
ownership, to control all its waterfront in the interest of its 
commerce and manufactures; and, in addition, to retain such 
control of the marginal lands immediately back of the water¬ 
front as will facilitate their best use, under private operation and 
development, for warehousing and manufacturing purposes. 

The Port of New York, including the New Jersey District, 
is the greatest manufacturing community in North America, and 
its continued industrial pre-eminence will hereafter be dependent 
upon the convenient use, through proper co-ordination, of its 
railroad and waterfront terminals. Every possible factory and 
warehouse site, in proximity to the waterfront, or along the lines 
of railroad leading to it, should be made possible of access by 
all lines of transportation. The convenient, industrial organiza¬ 
tion of the port, in these respects, is of much greater importance 
to the community about the harbor waters than is its organiza¬ 
tion for strictly commercial uses, incident to the terminal 
handling of goods in transit. 

The financial success of the vast subway system which the 
City is now planning, involving an expenditure of over one 
hundred and fifty millions of dollars, will be dependent upon 
effective terminal organization more than upon any other one 
factor. 

0. <IF I.. 

APR 14 ISIS 



3 


New York is the greatest city of America because it is the 
greatest terminal on the continent, but it must, from now on, 
supplement its natural opportunities by such artificial develop¬ 
ment as will best serve .its commercial and industrial needs. Only 
in that way can it continue to attract enterprise, capital and 
population. 

The new Erie Canal, which the State of New York is 
carrying to completion at an expense of over one hundred mil¬ 
lions of dollars, and the Intra Coastal Canal, which is ultimately 
planned to connect the Hudson, Delaware and Chesapeake 
Valley cities, must also be provided with suitable terminals and 
shipping facilities at New York. These canals and the Panama 
Canal and also the easy grades across the State of New York to 
the Mississippi Valley will tend to depress railroad rates, and 
will increase the importance of New York as the Atlantic portal 
of North America. 

To offset the natural opportunities of this port, the other 
Atlantic seaports, operating in conjunction with the railways 
leading to them, have for thirty years past succeeded in main¬ 
taining a differential freight rate against New York, amounting 
to three cents per hundred pounds, which the Interstate Com¬ 
merce Commission is now asked to do away with. The Commis¬ 
sion has recently been given power to establish freight rates, 
. and it may be reasonably expected that this unfair discrimination 
will soon be terminated. The removal of this disadvantage will 
greatly stimulate New York’s commerce and is an added reason 
why the port should provide in advance for its increasing trade. 

The organization of the port to meet its increased responsi¬ 
bilities is not difficult except along the west side of Manhattan, 
where reorganization of existing facilities and the intense rival¬ 
ries of the steamship and railroad companies there located have 
created unusual complications. This problem has been discussed 
and a remedy suggested in a series of Department reports having 
special reference to this section. 

The State of New York has recently enacted laws which 
give large powers to the City, through the Dock Department, 
for creating terminals and controlling them, instead of merely 
building and leasing docks. A State Constitutional Amendment, 
adopted last year, also permits the City to exempt from its debt 
limit self-sustaining dock bonds. A credit equal to the amount 
represented by such bonds may be availed of, and new bonds 
issued, for waterfront improvements. The Comptroller of Tffe 
City of New York estimates th^t, at the present time, this fund 
aggregates approximately seventy-three million dollars. The 
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State will deter¬ 
mine the precise amount this year, which, presumably, will not 


4 


materially differ from the Comptroller’s figures, and, when this 
credit shall have been made available, the City will be in a 
position to enter upon a series of dock improvements on a scale 
commensurate with its immediate future needs. It is incumbent 
upon the City promptly to adopt a terminal plan and policy 
which it shall follow in carrying out its waterfront improvements. 

In response to the continually increasing popular demand for 
information regarding the Port of New York, the following 
description of the port, by Mr. S. Willett Hoag, Jr., Deputy 
Chief Engineer, Department of Docks and Ferries, has been 
prepared for distribution. 

CALVIN TOMKINS, 

Commissioner of Docks. 





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CONTEMPLATED IMPROVEMENTS FOR RAILROAD TERMINALS ANDWATER- 
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CALVIN TOMKINS, 

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Summary Description of the Harbor of 

New York. 


S. WILLETT HOAG, Jr., Deputy Chief Engineer. 


1.—The Harbor. 

The Harbor of New York is a locality situated at the apex 
of a funnel-shaped ocean approach which nature seems to have 
formed as an invitation to the world to concentrate its marine 
activity toward this particular point, and as though in response, 
there has grown up here the greatest port in all the world—great 
because of its strategic relation to land as well as sea, and great 
because of realization here of the largest expectations, purposes 
and demands of a port. 

The Harbor of New York renders the same service to the 
commerce of this great nation as the heart does to the individual. 
It is hither that the great ocean carriers, transatlantic, world¬ 
wide and coastwise, gravitate, stopping long enough to start the 
labyrinthian distribution of their cargoes, and to receive in re¬ 
turn, for distribution elsewhere, the concentrated energies of 
farms, mills and manufactories. In Northern Europe there are 
many large seaports; in North America there is only one at which 
commerce converges. 

Where, then, does the activity and energy of the Harbor of 
New York begin and terminate? 

Take away the functional activities of the Harbor of New 
York and the City of New York would essentially cease to exist. 
The effect of such an occurrence on the rest of the country may 
well be imagined. In short, it is New York Harbor that has 
made New York City possible. 

The conservation of this great opportunity is of first import¬ 
ance, and is not to be subordinated to any of the other duties 
of the great municipality of the City of New York. It is a 
national trust, delegated to the City by the State and Federal 
Governments. Control, operation and the expansion in the way 
of betterments and improvements must be jealously maintained 
by the City of New York. Nature itself has provided the most 



4 


8 

important feature toward the conservation of the port by creat¬ 
ing a harbor world-renowned for its beauty and safety. Appar¬ 
ently land-locked as it is, the approach from the ocean ol¥ers no 
suggestion of what is revealed to the mariner after passing the 
main entrance to the harbor. 

The outer limit is a line extending from the Life Saving Sta¬ 
tion at R'ockaway to the Scotland Light Ship, and thence to the 
Atlantic Highland light. Within this line to the farther end of 
Raritan Bay is the lower harbor, which, with its contiguous shores 
and tributaries, form the outer portion of the Harbor of New 
York. The northerly shores of the lower harbor are entirely 
within the City of New York, and therefore the State of New 
York. The remaining shores are in the northern counties of the 
State of New Jersey, which, so far as concerns economic and 
social conditions, is an integral part of the port. The difficulties 
of administering the port are materially increased by the dual 
state control. 

Passing the main entrance through the recently constructed 
Ambrose Channel, between Coney Island and Sandy Hook, ves¬ 
sels turn to the right through almost a right angle, and pro¬ 
ceeding northward through the Narrows between Staten Island 
and Brooklyn, enter the Upper Bay, which for depth of water 
and absolute refuge, is unsurpassed by any other harbor in the 
world. 

This portion of the harbor is marked at its northerly end by 
the confluence of the North and’East Rivers. Within City limits 
the North River forms the boundary between the states of New 
Jersey and New York, New Jersey extending along the westerly 
shore. Arthur Kill and the Kill Von Kull, which together with 
the Upper and Lower Bays make the Borough of Richmond an 
island, known as Staten Island, separate the two states. The 
North and East Rivers extend generally in a northerly direction, 
with the Borough of Manhattan lying between and made an 
island by these and the Harlem River, which extends at Spuyten 
Duyvil from the North River to the East River at*Hell Gate, and 
separates the Boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx. Erom 
Hell Gate the East River extends in an almost easterly direction 
to Long Island Sound, entering the latter at Throggs Neck, and 
dividing the Boroughs of The Bronx and Queens. 

The North or Hudson River forms the principal medium for 
w*aterway traffic and communication with the interior of the 
state and the Great Lakes, through the Barge Canal, which dis¬ 
charges into the Hudson River near Albany. The East River is 
the principal means of communication with Long Island Sound 
and New England ports. The Erie or Barge Canal, a level water¬ 
way leading through the Hudson and Mohawk valleys to the west,. 



R.R. 


PENN. 


View Looking West, from Vicinity of Battery Park (New Whitehall Building), Showing Outer Ends of Piers in Foreground with Jersey City in the Middle and Far Distance 


COMpfUNJPA^V C P.P- OF N. J. 


P/OFR/S BAS/N 
CANAL 


[11] 



























15 


is the only route to and from the sea which avoids climbing the 
Allegheny Mountains. It provides the cheapest haul, and com¬ 
pels all other east and west railroads and coastwise steamship 
lines to come to New York, so that they may connect there with 
the ocean ferry service to the seaports of the world. 

New York is preeminently the great port for partial cargoes 
and package freight by regular liner service. Comparatively few 
tramp ships come to New York to pick up cargoes; for this pur¬ 
pose they go to other Atlantic seaports. The special service 
which New York renders is that of providing ocean service at 
periodic sailing dates, to all parts of the world. This compre¬ 
hensive and regular service has had the effect of attracting to 
New York, by all the rail and water lines leading to it, a pre¬ 
ponderating proportion of the exports and imports of the country. 

The port limits comprise both shores of the Lower and Upper 
Bay, with Arthur Kill and Kill Von Kull, and both shores of the 
North and East Rivers as far as and including the City of 
Yonkers on the North River, and as far as Port Morris on the 
East River. 

The New York City waterfront includes Jamaica Bay and 
comprises 445 miles, 125 miles of which are available or can be 
made so for ocean traffic. Of the remaining 320 miles, about 
60 miles are developed either by the municipality or by private 
owners, and 26 miles are reserved for parks and held by United 
States Government reservations. There is, therefore, vast oppor¬ 
tunity for development on more modern lines than have pre¬ 
vailed or been essential during the first forty years of port ad¬ 
ministration by New York City, through its Department of Docks. 
To meet this more modern idea of port development, the Commis¬ 
sioner of Docks has now under consideration extensive improve¬ 
ments, notably at South Brooklyn; at Brooklyn and Erie Basins; 
at Jamaica Bay; from Stapleton to St. George, Staten Island; at 
Eresh Kills, Staten Island, and along the lower and middle North 
River waterfront of Manhattan. 

II.— The Activities of the Port. 

These include the most extensive manufacturing industries 
in the United States; the handling of their raw materials and 
finished products of their manufacture. New York is a receiving 
and distributing station both for local consumption and for 
interior, coastwise, transatlantic and foreign commerce, and 
requires the co-ordinated use of its waterways by every imagina¬ 
ble class of floating craft from the mammoth transatlantic liner 
to the smallest launch. 

Here, too, the great marine terminals crowd each other for 
passengers and freight, together with the great railroad terminals 


16 


of the principal trunk lines. The main railroad terminals, with 
the exception of the New York Central and the New York, New 
Haven and Hartford, are distributed along the New Jeirsey 
shores of the port, and must use the waterways of the port for 
transport between the train (New Jersey) terminals and the cor¬ 
responding water stations, freight yards, etc., in the boroughs 
which make up the Greater City of New York, principally in 
Manhattan. Car floats, operated by tugs belonging to the different 
railroads, carrying trains of as many as twenty-two freight cars 
each, afford the principal means for this transportation. Cars 
arriving from all over the country in the morning are received 
at the local water stations, unloaded and loaded again, returning 
to the main terminals in the late afternoon. The railroad com¬ 
panies also use covered barges, operated by tugs, for local trans¬ 
portation—principally of flour, hay and grain. 



Congestion of Slip Between Two North River Piers by Car Floats. 


^ In addition to the traffic of coastwise, transatlantic and foreign 
shipping vessels, steam and sailing, the activities of the port in¬ 
clude the shipment^ and receipt of local traffic by barges, canal 
boats, the regular line of steamboats operating on the North and 
East Rivers, and Long Island^ Sound, lighters, ferryboats, float¬ 
ing elevators, and a large variety of river and harbor craft, not 
to speak of the innumerable pleasure craft and excursion steamers 









17 


carrying passengers and freight to the pleasure resorts in and 
adjacent to New York Harbor. 

Ihe volume of tonnage engaged in the foreign trade is one of 
the principal standards for measuring the greatness of a seaport. 
During the decade ending in 1910, the total net tonnage of 
vessels entered and cleared at the Port of New York increased 
from 16,800,000 in 1901 to 25,600,000 in 1910, or an increase of 
65 per cent. For the year ending June 30, 1911, the net tonnage 
entered was 13,428,950, and the net tonnage cleared was 13,366,893, 
or a total net tonnage of 26,795,843. The apparent increase there¬ 
fore is at the rate of about one million tons per year. In so far as 
the volume of tonnage is concerned, the Port of New York is with¬ 
out a rival. It handles four times that of Boston, the second port 
in the country. The total value of exports and imports is nearly 
eight times that of any other port in the country, and its actual 
annual value during the year 1910 was $1,587,977,314. 

The increase in value of foreign commerce of the Port of 
New York in 1910 over that of 1909 exceeded the total foreign 
commerce of Boston for that period, and completely demonstrates 
the relative importance and position of New York compared with 
other American ports. 

Compared with the whole United States, New York’s share 
of the exports for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911, was 
37 per cent. Its share of the imports during the same period 
was 57 per cent., and of exports and imports, 46 per cent. 

In comparison with the tonnage entered and cleared and the 
value of foreign trade of other leading ports of the world, the 
following statement from Statistical Abstract of United States, 
1910,” will show where New York stands in these two important 
indications of port activity. 


(The figures shown are_ for the latest available year, generally 1910, furnished by 
A. R. Smith, Secretary to the Barge Canal Commission.) 


Tonnage. Value of Foreign Trade. 

_ A _^ ^ ^ _ 

Entered. Cleared. Imports. Exports. Total. 


London . 11,605,698 8,622,316 $1,000,746,471 $569,256,326 $1,570,002,797 

Liverpool . 7,747,994 6,593,094 723,146,970 728,131,030 1,451,278,000 

Hamburg . 11,061,041 11,247,191 810,179,970 578,343,753 1,388,523,723 

Antwerp . 11,907,689 11,894,492 529,626,422 444,845,196 974,471,619 

New York. 13,042,818 12,541,903 935,990,958 651,986,356 1,587,977,314 


Of the ocean passenger traffic of the entire country, about 
90 per cent, passes through the Port of New York. 

An estimate of the total water movement in the port, that is, 
shipments and receipts, taken from the United States 1906 
Census Report on “ Transportation by Water,” the most recent 
authoritative statement in this respect, shows a total annual ton- 
















18 


nage of every description of 113,969,000 tons, of which 
25,000,000 tons represents the traffic in exports and imports, 
34,000,000 tons the traffic in American vessels, and 55,000,000 
the harbor traffic. 

The largest transatlantic freighter, such as the ‘‘ Baltic,” the 
“ Cedric,” or the ‘‘ Minneapolis,” has a cargo carrying capacity 
of about 12,000 tons, and if the aforesaid annual tonnage of the 
port were concentrated in the transatlantic freight carrying busi¬ 
ness, it would require 9,500 steamers of the ” Baltic ” type to 
carry this annual tonnage in one trip, or 280 steamers of this 
type, making continuous round trips throughout the year without 
laying up for repairs. 

As before stated, the water movement of the traffic and com¬ 
merce of the Port of New York is carried on by every con¬ 
ceivable type of craft, the most important of which are the trans¬ 
atlantic liner, the transatlantic freighter, the coastwise steamer, 
and the foreign or tramp steamer. The photographic illustra¬ 
tions show one of each of these types. In addition to these are 



White Star Steamship “ Olympic.” 


various types of sailing vessels, from the full-rigged ship down 
to the common sloop, tank steamers for oil, sailing lighters, steam 
lighters, floating grain elevators, floating coal conveyors, coal 
barges, canal boats of every description, covered barges for trans- 













[19] 


A White Star Transatlantic Freight Steamer, the “ Baltic. 










4 



Ward Line Coastwise Steamer, the “ Saratoga.” 



Steamer “Irak,” Type of Foreign Freight Steamer or Tramp. 

[20] 





















Type of Floating “ Coal Conveyor.” 


[211 





















122] 


Canal Boat District, Lower East River. 












[23] 


New England Navigation Company’s Steamboat, the “ Commonwealth,” Passing up the East River. 





































Type of “ Car Float.” 


» 



[24] 


Municipal Ferryboat “ Richmond.” 












Chelsea Section Steamship Terminal on the North River, Manhattan; View of Street Front Looking South from West Twenty- 

third Street. 
































26 


porting flour, hay and grain within the harbor; ice barges and 
scows for broken stone, sand and cement; car floats, ocean tugs, 
river tugs, dynamite launches, sound and river steamers and 
many types of excursion steamers and ferryboats. 

J11. —Faci LiTiKs Offered. 

For the accommodation of great vessels of the “ Olympic ” 
type down to the smallest vessel that plies within its harbor. The 
City of New York has up to the present time provided bountiful 
wharfage facilities. It has built and maintained 260 piers, dis¬ 
tributed among the several boroughs, of which 215 are on the 
shores of Manhattan; between eight and nine miles of sea 
wall bulkhead, with numerous freight sheds and other essentials 
of up-to-date wharfage requirements. 

The highest type of this development exists at what is known 
as the Chelsea section, where nine large two-story piers are 
installed, connected at the inshore by a continuous head-house 
covering a half mile of the Manhattan middle North River 
waterfront. These piers are equipped with heat, light and power 
for unloading and loading vessels; and steamers of the “ Lusi¬ 
tania ” type are berthed with ease, the complete installation being 
probably the flnest steamship terminal in the world. 

In addition to its piers and slips, the municipality of New 
York has built five large ferry terminals for the operation of 
the municipal ferry service between the Whitehall and St. 
George Terminals; between the South street and Stapleton 
Terminals, and between the South street and South Brooklyn 
Terminals. 

A large installation for transatlantic liners is located in 
Hoboken (New Jersey shore), at which point are the Hamburg- 
American and the North German Lloyd Steamship Terminals. 

The miscellaneous foreign steamship commerce finds accom¬ 
modation principally along the Brooklyn waterfront between 
Bay Ridge and the Navy Yard. 

A description of the features of the Port of New York would 
hardly be complete without some allusion to the provisions which 
The City of New York has made for its people of the thickly 
populated districts, who have few means for recreation during 
the summer season. The City has built eight large “ Recreation ” 
piers, the lower stories of which are used for commercial pur¬ 
poses and the upper stories for promenade and rest, where band 
concerts are regularly conducted. 


« 



[ 27 ] 


River Portal of the South Street Municipal Ferry Terminal. 

























I 




[ 28 ] 


Promenade Deck of a Recreation Pier During Dancing Exercises. 








29 


IV. —Policy and Control. 

Outside of the matter of administrative jurisdiction the abso¬ 
lute control of waterfront property depends, of course, upon 
ownership. In so far as The City of New York is concerned, 
this ownership is divided between private individuals and the 
municipality. Up to the present time the City holds 18 per cent, 
of the entire waterfront of Greater New York—52 per cent, of 
which is in the Borough of Manhattan. Its ownership comprises 
the land under water as well as the contiguous upland or right of 
wharfage, and has been established through Colonial charters, 
namely, the Dongan, the Cornbury and the Montgomerie Charters; 
by legislative enactments from time to time; by grants from the 
Commissioners of the Land Office, whereby the State has relin¬ 
quished land under water to the City; by cession from private 
owners; by purchase under agreement and by “ condemnation 
or expropriation. 

From 1665, when the City government, under a Mayor, 
Alderman and Sheriff, was established by the English Governor 
Nicoll, to 1798, substantially nothing was done by the City itself 
in the matter of waterfront improvement. Subsequent to 1798. 
however, the City attempted such improvements as West street 
and Thirteenth avenue along the North River waterfront, and 
South street and Tomkins street along the East River waterfront, 
but for a long time was in no financial condition to undertake 
any systematic improvement. Most of the wharves, piers and 
slips built during the period comprising the century preceding 
the creation of the Department of Docks were, therefore, built 
by private parties or individual owners, the land under water 
having been conveyed by the City for this purpose to individuals 
in the name of water grants. During this period the City relin¬ 
quished about 95 per cent, of its waterfront on both rivers by this 
practice. 

This policy, however, was reversed when the Dock Depart¬ 
ment was organized in 1870, and continuous efforts have since 
been made to obtain absolute control through ownership of the 
waterfront by The City of New York. The City is now engaged 
from time to time, as necessary improvements demand it, in the 
endeavor to acquire either by private purchase or by condemna¬ 
tion proceedings the very property that in former years it sur¬ 
rendered to private owners, as well as property outside of 
Colonial grants to the City which private owners have acquired 
from the State of New York. 

In somewhat like manner The City of New York has been 
obliged to learn by experience the folly of making long-term 
leases of its improved property, as had been done up to the year 
1910. But when in that vear it became necessary to modernize 


/ 


30 


already completed portions of the waterfront the City was 
confronted with the alternatives of postponement or the can¬ 
cellation of some of these leases. As a consequence, the policy 
of long leases has been changed for that of leases for ten years 
with privilege of renewal (where the lessee makes permanent 
and extensive improvements on leased property), with the con¬ 
dition that the City may at any time, before the expiration of 
ten years, take back the leased property on payment of a proper 
and equitable portion of the cost of such improvements. Yearly 
permits are issued for the occupancy of City improved water¬ 
front, revocable at any time at the will of the Commissioner. 
In this way, supreme control and authority in the initiative and 
execution of improvements of the New York City waterfront 
jS concentrated in the hands of the Dock Commissioner, subject 
to the approval, in certain matters, by the Commissioners of the 
Sinking Fund, or by the Board of Estimate, the financial repre¬ 
sentatives of the City. 


V.—Construction. 

In carrying out this extensive work, the Department of Docks 
has adopted standards of construction for piers, bulkheads and 
sea wall, which are the result of long experience with the vary¬ 
ing conditions controlling such work, using timber both for 
piers and sea wall in the sewage-tainted waters of the harbor. 
Below mean low water deterioration from decay is practically 
impossible, and this condition prevails in the filling in the rear 
of the sea wall, through which the tide ebbs and flows, as well 
as out in the open waters. Were it not for the ravages of the 
sea worm or teredo, this same construction could be used along 
the entire waterfront. But though the sea worm cannot and 
does not exist in those portions of the harbor aflfected by sewage 
pollution, wherever clean sea water predominates to such an 
extent as to make the dilution almost complete, steps are taken 
for the protection of piles and timber, so exposed, by creosoting. 
For such exposures, and latterly for the more extensive work 
on the entire waterfront, the use of concrete piles has been urged. 
But there are so many troublesome features attending the fab¬ 
rication, the handling and the driving of concrete piles into 
bottoms of so greatly varying character as those which surround 
the waterfront of New York, as well as the necessity for so 
carefully constructing a concrete pile as to place the question 
of corrosion of the reinforcing steel beyond all doubt, that the 
question of expense becomes a most serious obstacle to their use. 
And outside of the question of percentage of revenue, the justi¬ 
fication for such expense is questionable when, as a rule, timber 
piles will outlive the commercial life of such a structure. 



[311 


Two Recently Constructed Piers frcjin 1,500 to 1,600 Feet Long at South l>rookl\n, the one to the Right Covered 
with a Single Story hreight Shed, the Other One Ready to Receive a hreight Shed. Ihe Decks of tlicse Piers 
are Steel Reinforced Concrete. 













32 


A pier is ordinarily a wooden structure^ throughout, sup¬ 
ported upon vertical piles braced with inclined piles. In a 
general way, the piles are capped or clamped in rows, braced 
with horizontal and diagonal bracing. Upon the cross caps, 
rangers or floor beams are laid, carrying the deck system or the 
pier floor construction. Thus a pier consisting of innumerable 
joints is a very elastic structure, and should be an elastic 
structure, for a vessel like the “ Lusitania,” for instance, mov¬ 
ing with a tidal velocity alone during the operation of docking, 
would create an impact of several million foot pounds.^ This 
destructive energy must be stopped by something. Will the 
pier stop it? Or must the vessel itself meet and check it? With 
an elastic pier this work is distributed throughout the structure 
because of its elasticity and the vessel is saved from deformation. 

There are four types of pier decks in use in the port. The 
deck may consist of a course of deck planking overlaid with a 
sheathing course for taking up the ‘^vear. Instead of the timber 
sheathing course the deck planking itself may be overlaid with 
six inches of concrete topped off with asphalt. A six-inch rein¬ 
forced concrete deck, topped off with asphalt, may be laid 
directly upon the ranger or floor beam system. Or, the rangers 
may be entirely eliminated, and a 10-inch steel reinforced con¬ 
crete slab, topped off* with asphalt, may be laid directly upon the 
capping system. These various types of decks are used accord¬ 
ing to the importance of a pier structure. 

Passing from piers to the sea wall, the construction of the 
latter is controlled almost entirely by the character of the river 
bottom. If the bottom is rock within 40 feet of the surface and 
the material over that rock is soft, the rock is dredged off', 
pumped clean and the sea wall based on a foundation of bag 
concrete brought up to construction level with the aid of divers. 
Upon this, successive tiers of concrete blocks are laid, up to 
about mean low water, also with the aid of divers. Above 
these blocks the wall is usually faced off with granite, backed 
up by mass concrete, carried up to the street grade. The con¬ 
crete blocks used in the construction of the sea wall weigh 
from 25 to 95 tons each, are molded in air at the Department 
yards, shipped on scows to the work and handled with a 40-ton 
or a 100-ton derrick. 

Where the river bottom is of such a character that piles can 
be driven into hard clay, sand or other hard bottom, the softer 
material is removed by dredging to about 30 feet below mean 
low water, after which piles are driven for foundation purposes, 
cut off at a grade of about 15 feet below mean low water and 
fortifled by an embankment of riprap and cobble brought up to 
the grade of the tops of the sawed off piles. Upon these piles a 






n 


IkJ 
















The Dock Department’s 100-Ton Derrick Shifting Recently Fabricated 
Bulkhead Wall Blocks from Bulkhead to Scow for Shipment to 
Distant Points. 


f33J 













34 


single tier of concrete blocks, weighing in the neighborhood of 
•80 tons each, is laid, with an intervening mattress of concrete on 
the heads of the piles. A granite facing with concrete backing 
is then built from the top of the blocks at about mean low water 
up to the street grade. 

Where the bottom is soft beyond the penetration of piles, 
dredging is carried to about 35 feet below mean low water for 
a width of about 100 feet, and after a riprap and cobble embank¬ 
ment has been started the foundation piles are driven and cut 
off at about 15 feet below mean low water, after which the 
embankment is completed up to the tops of the cut off piles and 



Congestion on the Marginal Street About 10 A. M. 


finished with concrete blocks and granite facing. In this type 
the wall is relieved from the pressure due to filling by a platform 
in the rear supported upon vertical piles, braced with inclined 
piles and decked over at mean low water, forming an integral 
part of the wall. After the granite facing and concrete backing 
in all types are carried up to grade, a riprap embankment 
is deposited in the rear of the wall, with a top width of about 
10 feet at a grade of about 5 feet above mean low water. 
Behind and over this the filling in the rear of the wall is depos¬ 
ited, carrying the filling shorewards from the wall. After the 
filling has ceased to settle the area in the rear is graded up, and 
■upon this the permanent pavement is laid. 













35 


A general description of the sea wall construction as prac¬ 
ticed by the Department of Docks in the Harbor of New York 
would hardly be complete without a reference to the surprisingly 
satisfactory results realized from the type of wall built on soft 
mud bottom. In one particular stretch of the waterfront, namely, 
the Chelsea and Gansevoort sections, the rock is 175 feet below 
low water, and consequently so far beyond the reach of pile pene¬ 
tration that the wall is a structure supported by mud flotation and 
has never given any trouble other than what was anticipated in 
the matter of settlement, which, during the period of settlement, 
amounting to four feet and over, was remedied by adding extra 
courses of granite to the top where required. 

VI.— Scale of Expenditure. 

The City of New York has been and is so wide awake and 
alive to the principles of conservation of its natural opportunities 
that, covering the period of forty years marked by the organiza¬ 
tion and operations of the Department of Docks, it has spent 
$32,260,000 for the acquisition of property; $56,173,000 for the 
construction of piers and bulkheads; $2,266,000 for the purchase 
of property for municipal ferry terminals; $5,000,000 for the con¬ 
struction of ferry terminals themselves; $3,000,000 for the con¬ 
struction and purchase of ferryboats, and $2,500,000 for recrea¬ 
tion piers, or a total of $101,199,000. 

This expenditure has been made at an ever increasing ratio. 
For instance, in 1871 the amount expended for the construction 
of piers and bulkheads was $314,000. In 1909, the correspond¬ 
ing expenditure was $6,754,000, and the Dock Department has 
now under study new facilities for handling the vast tonnage, 
not only of imports and exports, but of local commerce as well, 
which it is estimated will cost some $70,000,000. 

In a report by the Comptroller of The City of New York, 
dated June 7, 1911, to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, 
Ee states: “ The current net revenue received by the City from 

the operation of all the properties under the jurisdiction of the 
Department of Docks and Ferries, as of December 31, 1910, 
was $3,068,672.13, this figure representing yearly gross revenues 
of $5,521,901.08, less expenses of operation and maintenance and 
depreciation in the value of ferryboats and other floating plant 
for the year 1910, aggregating $2,453,228.95.” 


M. B. Brown Printing & Binding Co., 49-57 Park Place, N. T. 







library of congress 


































